Re: OT: Heterogenous networks

There are several reasons I am bringing it up.

First, it is an in house application, but I'm adopting the approach of 3
tier architecture.

Second, I have windows desktops (hence the VB), but I have Linux servers in
my network.

Third, our company also has an AS/400 and an os/390, so I am looking to
incorporate a solution that I can use for all of them.

Finally, I may need to start working on an in-house application that will be
rolled out, eventually, to third parties to access system from our legacy
applications.  VB on the desktop, XML/SOAP for the protocol and java on the
servers seems to be the best solution with the minimal amount of
technologies to use.

After regarding everything, I think xml/soap will serve me best.

Adam Lang
Systems Engineer
Rutgers Casualty Insurance Company
----- Original Message -----
From: "Andrea Aime" <aaime@comune.modena.it>
To: "Adam Lang" <aalang@rutgersinsurance.com>
Cc: "pgsql-interfaces" <pgsql-interfaces@postgresql.org>
Sent: Thursday, November 16, 2000 3:16 AM
Subject: Re: [INTERFACES] OT: Heterogenous networks


> Hi everybody,
> usually I'm just a listener on this mailing list, but this time
> I'd like to express my opinion. I see you're talking about VB and,
> as it seems, an in house application. Then you speak about SOAP, DCOM
> and CORBA. If you are making in house applications in VB, you can use
> available tools without issuing to XML or SOAP. If you use a
> client/server
> approach, you can use the ODBC driver to access a Postgres server. If
> you're
> thinking to adopt a three-tier approach, you can build the middle tier
> in
> VB over a WIN2000 server (God save us!) and still access you Postgres db
> over ODBC (in fact, it would be much better if there were a OLE-DB
> driver):
> the business rules are the most important part of your system and if you
> know only VB, well, I can't see any other solution.
> SOAP, Biztalk and the other MS appraches to platform independent
> communications are geared toward business to business communication,
> when
> you need to access informations and applications that are located
> remotely,
> maybe on a different platform, but surely with a different information
> structure (the same db will be designed with different tables by
> different db experts), so there's a different context. In conclusion, I
> don't think that one needs SOAP for in-house development. You must also
> consider that XML creation, decode an transmission requires bandwith and
> processing time, so it's not as efficient as an ODBC/OLE-DB driver.
> I hope this helps.
> Andrea Aime
>
> Adam Lang wrote:
> >
> > Since all clients in my company are Windows and I already know VB, it is
by
> > far the most logical choice for a desktop application.
> >
> > But it doesn't necessarily mean MS only... granted the development tools
> > gear towards it.  That is the one advantage of SOAP and XML.  It can
handle,
> > theoretically, the distributed environment for non MS hosts and it is
not
> > locking myself into MS technology.
> >
> > As for CORBA in VB, I think you need to use a DCOM to Corba bridge...
> > atleast that is what I heard.
> >
> > Adam Lang
> > Systems Engineer
> > Rutgers Casualty Insurance Company
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Joachim Achtzehnter" <joachim@kraut.ca>
> > To: "Adam Lang" <aalang@rutgersinsurance.com>
> > Cc: "pgsql-interfaces" <pgsql-interfaces@postgresql.org>
> > Sent: Wednesday, November 15, 2000 12:56 PM
> > Subject: Re: [INTERFACES] OT: Heterogenous networks
> >
> > > Today, in a message to pgsql-interfaces Adam Lang wrote:
> > > >
> > > > Man... everything has to be so hard to make a decision on...
Sometimes
> > > > I wish someone was here before me that made these tech decisions...
> > >
> > > Stephen Crawley had written:
> > > > >
> > > > > CORBA is both standardised and platform independent.
> > >
> > > While I tend to agree with Stephen, and I had mentioned CORBA in an
> > > earlier message too, Adam may be in a bit of a bind because he has
settled
> > > on using VB. I'm not aware of a CORBA mapping for that, is there one?
> > >
> > > By choosing VB one more or less commits to a Microsoft only solution,
> > > arghh.
> > >
> > > Depending on the nature of your application you may also want to
> > > investigate building a Web application. The client would be IExplorer
to
> > > stay with the Microsoft only approach. :) And you can also use
VBScript if
> > > you like.
> > >
> > > Joachim
> > >
> > > --
> > > work:     joachima@realtimeint.com  (http://www.realtimeint.com)
> > > private:  joachim@kraut.ca          (http://www.kraut.ca)